I have trouble waking up in time to go to class or minor things like that, but you bet your ass I was going to try to wake up as early as possible if it meant playing the Crackdown demo. So, at 5 AM or thereabouts, my groggy eyes opened and I sprinted to the 360.

The game takes a little getting used to at first, but it's verrrry nice. Put simply, this is GTA from the perspective of someone who is essentially a superhero, when it comes to physical abilities. And yes, that's every bit as as fun as it sounds. I've only played it for a couple of hours so far (the demo has a one-hour time limit), but just leaping and climbing around is fun enough to spend hours doing that alone. The driving isn't amazing, but it's decent enough, and there are so many fun things that I can't even imagine yet just waiting to be done with the physics.

The draw distance is as amazing as advertised, and the cel-shaded, "vaguely near future" style works. The main complaint I have is probably that the targeting system, while incredibly nice on the whole and something GTA IV should aim for, is kind of sluggish when it comes to switching targets when there are multiple enemies bunched together. This occasionally leaves you shooting at a dead guy for a bit too long, but then, you're a ****ing superhero; you can handle that.

I'll probably play through the demo a couple more times today, at minimum. It's taken the game from definite rental to definite purchase. Purchased so hard.

From another forum:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stoo

A member of the public just ran me over so i jumped on the truck following him and shot out his tires. I then ripped his car door off, dragged him out and carried him to the top of a nearby building. Carefully setting him down on the edge of the roof, i roundhouse-kicked him off into the middle of the road 50 feet below whereby his lifeless body was then promptly smeared by a passing bus.

I got Lost Planet over the weekend. It looked so cool I couldn't resist.

It's... hard to explain. The gameplay is odd. the play control feels a little clunky.

The game is done in this anime style which I think is kind of lame, and you can tell in the dialog sometimes. The game LOOKS great, the weapons and vehicles are fun, and the basic idea is pretty cool.

Some of the enemies are a real pain in the ass, and more of a chore to kill than something that adds to the game. However, some of the other enemies are incredible. The way that they move and are animated is cool. There are other ones that are enormous, to where they appear and you're like, "Ho-ly crap". I saw this worm looking thing last night the scale of which reminded me in one of those star wars movies where they fly out of the asteroid that is inhabited by the giant worm, and the ship is about as big as one of the teeth. It's not quite that large, but you get the idea.

Jury still out on the game, from my POV, but it's... interesting.

You have to play it on the medium difficulty at least though. On the lowest setting, the heat aspect of the game isn't a factor (the planet is extremely cold, and your survival suit needs to collect heat from the environment to survive). I think it really adds to the gameplay. It gives it a totally different feel.

I got Lost Planet over the weekend. It looked so cool I couldn't resist.

It's... hard to explain. The gameplay is odd. the play control feels a little clunky.

The game is done in this anime style which I think is kind of lame, and you can tell in the dialog sometimes. The game LOOKS great, the weapons and vehicles are fun, and the basic idea is pretty cool.

Some of the enemies are a real pain in the ass, and more of a chore to kill than something that adds to the game. However, some of the other enemies are incredible. The way that they move and are animated is cool. There are other ones that are enormous, to where they appear and you're like, "Ho-ly crap". I saw this worm looking thing last night the scale of which reminded me in one of those star wars movies where they fly out of the asteroid that is inhabited by the giant worm, and the ship is about as big as one of the teeth. It's not quite that large, but you get the idea.

Jury still out on the game, from my POV, but it's... interesting.

You have to play it on the medium difficulty at least though. On the lowest setting, the heat aspect of the game isn't a factor (the planet is extremely cold, and your survival suit needs to collect heat from the environment to survive). I think it really adds to the gameplay. It gives it a totally different feel.

Adept said earlier that he really enjoyed Star Trek Legacy, so I rented it. Graphics are very cool, but handling the starship is a bit of a chore. It's slow to respond to commands and can get a bit frustrating to play.

Adept said earlier that he really enjoyed Star Trek Legacy, so I rented it. Graphics are very cool, but handling the starship is a bit of a chore. It's slow to respond to commands and can get a bit frustrating to play.

I played the shit out of Starfleet Command II on the PC...is Legacy anything like that?

I played the shit out of Starfleet Command II on the PC...is Legacy anything like that?

Dunno. Never tried that one out on my out-of-date PC.

In Legacy, you start off with the first Enterprise with Capt. Jonathan Archer (Scott Bakula narrates), and go about missions. You try to assemble a fleet along the way, with you earning points after each successful mission. With these points, you can buy ships to add to your fleet, adn they join the gameplay at whatever point you just left.

I haven't made it terribly far as I have just the Enterprise, an early version of the Reliant, and a Washington class battleship.

The game IS engrossing, but I just have a little bit of a problem with the controls so far.

In Legacy, you start off with the first Enterprise with Capt. Jonathan Archer (Scott Bakula narrates), and go about missions. You try to assemble a fleet along the way, with you earning points after each successful mission. With these points, you can buy ships to add to your fleet, adn they join the gameplay at whatever point you just left.

I haven't made it terribly far as I have just the Enterprise, an early version of the Reliant, and a Washington class battleship.

The game IS engrossing, but I just have a little bit of a problem with the controls so far.

Sounds alot like SFC.

SFC II took place in the "movie" period (pre-TNG) and had Romulans, Klingons, Gorn and a couple others. You could build up a fleet of 3 ships and fit them with weapons.

SFC III took place in the TNG era. You were limited to one ship.

Both games were loosely based on the tabletop/RPG Starfleet Battles and SFC II has a strong underground following to this day, even though it's almost a decade old.

I mean, everytime they ran a play they either got 15 yards or broke a 60 yard touchdown or something. WTF? Can't they balance the game to not give up so many big plays?

Not to mention, we were down by about 20 points in the middle of the third quarter, and the CPU coach is still calling draw plays and runs up the gut. I had to rearrange the audibles just so we could throw and try to get back into the game.